4 former Mass. firefighters suing over lost jobs

GROTON, Mass. — Four former firefighters are suing the town, alleging officials threatened them and wrongfully terminated their jobs, violating their civil rights.

Former Deputy Fire Chief Clarence Jefferson and former on-call firefighters Stephen Tervo, Benjamin Miele and James Horan filed the lawsuit in the Middlesex County Superior Court on Sept. 2 against eight members of town government. The defendants are Town Manager Mark Haddad; Board of Selectmen Chairman Joshua Degen; Selectmen Peter Cunningham, Anna Eliot, Jack Petropoulos and Stuart Schulman; former Fire Chief Joseph Bosselait; and Capt. Susan Daly and Lt. Anthony Hawgood of the Groton Fire Department.

The lawsuit stems from complaints that the former firefighters filed with the town in June, following selectmen's decision not to reappoint Miele and Tervo. Jefferson had tended his retirement and Horan his resignation. The former firefighters have considered selectmen's claim that Miele and Tervo were simply not reappointed, rather than fired, as the board's excuse to force them out. The firefighters have said the town has never annually appointed any firefighters over the past three decades.